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There is so much history between Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost, with most of it taking place in the K-1 ring. This weekend in Japan the two will meet in a WKO ring; World Kumite Organization. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard of it before, it doesn't matter if both Aerts and Hoost are older, this is pure nostalgia on so many levels and a chance for a final in-ring chapter to play out between two of the all-time greats in K-1 history.

Most of our attention over the past few years has been on the future and present stars, but it is safe to say that most of us wouldn't be here right now as fans if it weren't for Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost.

The sport of kickboxing is one that has been around for a while under different rules, names and appearances, but has gone through periods of interest and disinterest alike. Without a doubt kickboxing was at its highest point in Japan from the mid-90’s through the late 2000’s under the K-1 banner. K-1 was an undeniable force in combat sports that wowed fans all over the world and kept up its level of mystique. K-1 was a monolith in the combat sports world, a Japanese organization that seemed to always have a small stable of fighters that it promoted while rarely swapping them out for newer, younger talents.

Throughout the years K-1 earned some scorn and derision from fans and insiders, claims of corruption, fight-fixing and organized crime ties behind the scenes would eventually tear the organization apart, yet fans still came out in droves right up until the final gong. Now here we sit, just shy of five years after FEG’s K-1 imploded and we are watching organizations like GLORY, K-1 Global, K-1 Japan, Enfusion and SuperKombat struggle to gain traction in their respective markets. To many, it is a mystery to mull over why brands like GLORY haven’t caught on with more fans, but it seems clear as day what the key differences were between K-1’s glory days and the current marketplace is; creativity.

If you go back and watch the first K-1 World Grand Prix that was won by Branko Cikatic you can see the roots of what would become the K-1 that we knew and loved, yet something was missing. Branko was a fine fighter, but he wasn’t the type of fighter that the Japanese audience would fall in love with or be featured on television like many future K-1 champions would be. Everything from the lighting to the stage setup and presentation was good but not quite there yet. Then professional wrestling god Akira Maeda helped K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii to meld professional wrestling ideals into the sport and everything changed.

Akira Maeda (L) and Kazuyoshi Ishii (R)

Looking back at K-1’s list of champions and fighters that endured the passage of time as icons you’ll always find something to latch onto about these fighters. A young Peter Aerts was called the Dutch Lumberjack, entering the ring wearing a flannel vest and hat. Ernesto Hoost was called Mr. Perfect because of his immaculate technique and lived up the gimmick whenever he was on camera as the perfect fighter. Andy Hug was the karateka with a profound love and admiration for the Japanese culture so he was always seen in his signature gi in promotional videos and so on.

What I’m trying to say is that K-1 had characters. These characters were of course real-life fighters and maybe just small exaggerations of the fighters’ personalities, but each fighter that K-1 sunk considerate amounts of time and energy into marketing had a larger-than-life personality that when placed on a large stage was able to enthrall fans. Many have written off such things as simply “Japanese” and that they wouldn’t work anywhere else, but a cursory look around the world at the legions of fans of K-1 and those fighters shows just how effective that was.

I’ve heard the arguments as to why this current crop of kickboxing stars can’t be presented in that way, everything from “well, they aren’t as charismatic” to “fans want real, not manufactured hype,” but the proof is in the pudding. Chi Lewis Parry has been one of the fighters that GLORY has been heavily marketing in part due to just how much he can talk. When Chi Lewis Parry opens his mouth people listen, which is part of the magic of Chi Lewis Parry. I’m not sure that he’s ready for Rico Verhoeven just yet, but he’s found himself an audience much like Chael Sonnen did years ago and how Conor McGregor has done in the UFC recently. Chi Lewis Parry’s talent hasn’t been nurtured or curated, though, just thrust at the screen once discovered without much thought put into it.

A large part of what made K-1 so successful has to be on the shoulders of Kazuyoshi Ishii, who had the vision and talent to find these personality traits in his fighters and to amplify them. Peter Aerts was nowhere near the level of a talker as a Chi Lewis Parry or a Conor McGregor, yet he made a ton of money for K-1 and became a world famous personality off of being the “Dutch Lumberjack” and later “Mr. K-1.” In fact, Aerts is rather soft-spoken and is one of the kindest guys that you’ll ever talk to who enjoys laughing and not taking himself too seriously, yet fans were always invested in Aerts.

That was the magic of K-1. You didn’t need to be Bob Sapp to become a star. In fact, while fighters like Bob Sapp who could talk and looked imposing did great business for K-1, they wouldn’t last because of the lack of talent. Where K-1 really shined was finding legitimately talented fighters and building them into something special. In fact, there was one great project near the end of K-1’s run that deserves special attention; Alistair Overeem.

Overeem was a moderately successful MMA fighter with an imposing physique, vicious knees and a great standing guillotine that never seemed to really catch on with fans. Yet, somehow, in 2008 after wins over Paul Buentello, Mark Hunt and a draw against Mirko Cro Cop he was brought into K-1 to fight their golden boy Badr Hari on New Year’s Eve. Badr Hari was coming off of a rather embarrassing display where he essentially imploded under the pressure during the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals against Remy Bonjasky and got himself disqualified, so K-1 thrust him into a New Year’s Eve freakshow fight to defend the honor of K-1 against the MMA world’s Overeem. The thing is, Overeem knocked Badr Hari out and all hell broke loose.

Alistair Overeem is a relatively quiet, soft-spoken guy. In fact, he’s a pretty nice dude for a guy who is as muscular and scary in the ring as he is. The cocky Badr Hari who had just earlier in the month lost the K-1 World Grand Prix via disqualification was there to get his win back, to get back on track and regain face after his in-ring meltdown, but instead a new star was born in Overeem. Overeem tried his hand against the K-1 World Grand Prix Champion of Remy Bonjasky a few months later and looked scary, but ultimately lacking experience against a tactician like Bonjasky and dropped a decision. That wasn’t the end of Overeem in K-1, oh no, not by a longshot.

The K-1 marketing machine quickly went to work with Overeem, producing perhaps one of the most amazing hype videos that I’ve ever seen for a fighter leading into the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16. This video showed Overeem on the streets of Holland with his signature mallet that he used to bring to the ring with him smashing a bike into pieces. It encapsulated the fury that we saw in the ring from Overeem, the raw power and emotion that he brought into fights without him having to cut an eloquent interview. After smashing a bike and a camera tripod he pointed to the camera, took a few deep breaths and uttered “Everybody’s gonna die.”

It was beautiful. I remember seeing it at the time and just being awestruck by it. Alistair Overeem held a victory over Badr Hari and nearly defeated then-champion Remy Bonjasky and was going to fight the legend Peter Aerts in the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16. Overeem was being billed as the outsider, the invader who was looking to usurp the throne that was always held by the best kickboxers in the world for his own. It was a simple, effective narrative that was only exacerbated when he defeated Peter Aerts in the Final 16, securing his spot in the K-1 World Grand Prix.

K-1 did a series of vignettes with Overeem leading up to his entry into the K-1 World Grand Prix, focusing on his raw strength and his crazy, unorthodox training in Holland. While all of that was good, perhaps what was the most effective was showing him eat. Sounds weird, right? But Alistair Overeem is a huge dude who needed a lot of protein and when they sent a camera crew to show him cooking his own food and talking about how he ate horsemeat for its protein value, well, everyone went nuts. Alistair Overeem filmed inside of a tiny Dutch kitchen that he could barely fit inside of cooking horse steaks to prepare for the K-1 World Grand Prix was an image that endures to this day as one of the defining moments in the career of “Ubereem.”

His first fight was to be against the Kyokushin fighter from Brazil that was popular in Japanese karate circuits in Ewerton Teixeira. Teixeira was always a skilled guy who wasn’t the most exciting fighter to watch, but he connected well enough with fans and filled an important role for the organization by representing Kyokushin. The video package that they created leading into that fight hammered home their narrative of Overeem being an “invader” from MMA, showing highlights from his fights with Badr, Remy and Aerts. The visual of Overeem literally bullying around the K-1 legend Peter Aerts and tossing around Remy Bonjasky was a powerful one, so was the interview footage of Badr Hari talking about his loss to Overeem. They also sowed the seeds of Overeem vs. Badr Hari meeting again in the tournament in a rematch for the ages, which played a big role in the 2009 K-1 World Grand Prix.

Overeem scored an absolutely brutal knockout on Ewerton Teixeira with a clinch knee, which helped to lead to the legend of the UBERKNEE and only made Overeem look that much stronger heading into the semifinals against Badr Hari. The rematch with Badr Hari was the story of the show, by far, which overshadowed what would become another Semmy Schilt victory. The real story of the show was that Alistair Overeem’s stock was on the rise and that it was part skill and talent and part marketing and narrative-building. This fight was the culmination of a lot of work and storytelling where a lot of credit should go to Michael Schiavello’s absolutely brilliant narrative-driven call throughout this event.

I’ve heard many a fan decry Schiavello, Sefo and Kogan’s call during that match, or their celebration on-camera after the fight as “cheesey” or “unprofessional,” but the reality was that they were genuinely excited and engaged in the narrative, as was the entire crowd. That finish still gives me chills to this day because of just how perfect of a moment it was. The thing is, I’ve heard a lot of people say that narratives in combat sports are “impossible” because of the unpredictable nature of people getting hit in the face, but the truth is that a deft storyteller will find a way to weave a complex narrative that can be altered along the way to be just as effective.

Due to Badr Hari once again losing his cool in the ring in 2010 he was on a bit of a sabbatical from the sport, leaving the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix wide open for new blood. The tournament saw a lot of top names involved, including newer names like Tyrone Spong and Gokhan Saki becoming dark horses to win the entire tournament and to bring new blood into the K-1 lineage. K-1 continued their push for Overeem, though, pushing the narrative of Overeem more focused than ever on K-1, but still slightly arrogant and the outsider heading into the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix.

They focused on his raw strength as one of his selling points. We know in combat sports that raw strength and physique aren’t what makes a fighter “good,” but by pushing this narrative they kept building up Overeem as a larger-than-life character, even having him talking about how he grew up watching Hulk Hogan in WWF.

Overeem, of course, would go on to win the K-1 World Grand Prix, becoming one of the most famous fighters in Japan. His stock also rose within the United States as well, with more and more fans calling for him to step back into the Strikeforce cage to defend the Strikeforce Heavyweight Championship, maybe even go to the UFC and challenge Brock Lesnar in a dream match. In fact, Overeem now had an aura about him when he stepped into the ring. He was the K-1 World Grand Prix Champion and that not only meant something, it meant everything at the time.

Regardless of your opinion of Alistair Overeem, K-1 took a fighter that was talented and driven and helped to push him beyond the level that he was at the time. They helped to make him a star and a featured attraction that they were drawing money off of up until scandal struck and the company lost their television deal and ultimately disintegrated.

Alistair Overeem is simply the last example of starbuilding that K-1 did and how that work that they did on pushing Overeem’s larger-than-life character was able to carry over after his K-1 career and help to build him up to be a living legend in combat sports. Anything that happened after is immaterial, of course, but he was still elevated in part by K-1’s huge push that endeared him to fans across the world. If you were to ask me what is missing from modern kickboxing that K-1 was able to do the answer is simple; they built stars. They made fans care about their fighters while transforming them into characters and building narratives around their fights.

It didn’t matter if these characters won or lost, they were still verifiable draws for K-1 and vital parts of the K-1 ecosystem. Peter Aerts, Ernesto Hoost, Jerome Le Banner, Andy Hug, Ray Sefo and many other fighters won and lost in the K-1 ring but it never mattered because they’d come back and get another chance. They’d get another chance and K-1 would weave stories about these fighters and their upcoming fights that made fans genuinely interested in seeing what came next. These narratives didn’t need to be perfect, they just needed to exist.

That doesn’t exist today. Instead we get training footage, cut-and-dry interviews and a focus on who won and who lost, not the humanity behind who won or lost. Not the story. If you treat a fighter who lost like a human being and tell their story the chances of fans being interested in their next fight is only going to increase. This is why fighters like Aerts and Hoost could have thirty year long careers that included crushing losses but still attract fans to this day.

The sport of kickboxing drew on not just the physical aspect of the sport, but it drew and thrived off of the creativity of the sport. Kickboxing thrived not just by having a good, rock ‘em, sock ‘em product, but by molding fighters into larger-than-life characters that played off of their personalities. It thrived by created narratives for each and every fight to appeal to fans and didn’t rely on fighters to sell their own fights. Kickboxing helped to build these fighters into box office and television attractions and was never left with cards that delivered in action but drew no eyes.

So my answer to the question that is floating around right now as to “Why aren’t fans attracted to kickboxing?” Simple, nobody is doing anything to make fans care.

Well, some feuds just die hard, don't they? The last time that Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost stepped into the ring with each other it was 2006 and things were very, very different. Now it is 2014 and while Peter Aerts may be preparing for a fight with Freddy Kemayo in August, that doesn't mean that he can't look to the future. That future is October where he's slated to square off against fellow legend Ernesto Hoost in Osaka, Japan.

Hoost and Aerts will be competing for the WKO Heavyweight Championship. [source]

Our bud Steven Wright has always made it clear how much he loves the sport of kickboxing. He makes his money by helping out some of the best MMA fighters in the world to hone their standup, but his passion has always been kickboxing. For about as long as I've known Steven he has been talking about his documentary. Steven is a lot like me in the regards of he always has a lot going on, but he always stuck to his guns; he was going to release his epic kickboxing documentary at some point.

So we waited and waited and I at times wondered if he had forgotten about it. He hasn't, not at all. We've seen episodes 1 - 7 already, so here is 8, 9 and 10.

Over the weekend Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost met for the sixth time in the ring under the WKO (World Kumite Organization) banner. It was an interesting affair with a lot of old K-1 names in attendance, including Kazuyoshi Ishii himself, which should raise a few eyebrows. We've all been eagerly awaiting the footage from the fight, especially knowing that there were film crews there taping the fight, but none of that has surfaced just yet.

Instead, our friends at FightStadium went ahead and pieced together some of the footage that had been floating around online of the fight. It's not pretty, but you can at least see what went down. There has been talk of a potential rematch since Aerts claims that he only had three weeks to train, plus there was talk of a gentlemen's agreement to go easy on his legs since he requires knee surgery in the near future.

Earlier this month we announced that Ernesto Hoost would be Fighting Peter Aerts for the sixth time in Osaka, Japan on October 19th. Hoost has won 3 of the 5, so this gives Aerts the chance to tie it up for good, since i doubt they will be fighting for a seventh time, but then again I never expected to see this fight again.

The rest of the WKO: The Kumite Energy main fights have now been announced and we get to see more of the old K-1 names we grew to love. Both Stephan Leko and Chalid "Die Faust" Arrab will be fighting. Leko has been fighting quite frequently lately but having no success at all, he is on a 6 fight losing streak, with the last 5 losses all coming by KO or TKO. If he can't turn it around this fight, we would have to imagine he cannot keep this up much longer. Die Faust on the other hand, has not been very active, hasn't fought since 2010 but has lost his last 5 fights and his last win was in 2006.

Fedor Emelianenko is known to be one of the greatest fighters of all time, if not the GOAT of MMA. There are a few out there who would argue against that, but two losses after ten years of dominance does not prove any sort of point as much as it shows degradation happens over the years in any high level athlete and unless they switch up their entire training things won't go according to plan. It looks like Fedor has decided to switch up his training and approach to MMA altogether as he is not handling his training on his own like he usually did in seclusion in Russia. It has been reported that Fedor has been training in the Netherlands, and now it comes out that he is training with none other than Mr. Perfect himself, Ernesto Hoost.

It looks like Fedor and a few friends called upon Ernesto Hoost to set up a training camp of sorts and MixFight.ru has the photos to prove it. For more photos, head over to MixFight. [source]

The world of kickboxing has a rich history to fall back upon so we here at LiverKick figure, why not? Why not give a glimpse into some of the fights from the past that have made up this wonderful sport and tie it all in to the present. The kids on the Instagram and Twitter like to call Thursdays "Throwback Thursdays," I'm just going to say that this is a LiverKick Throwback.

Branco Cikatic was the original Croatian heavyweight Kickboxer and the first Croation born fighter to achieve international success. K-1 didn't start until 1993, Branko was 38 years old already, but he made the most of it and became the very first K-1 grand prix champion and won all three fights in one night by knockout. Cikatic had a rock-solid chin and huge power in both hands, he wasn't the most technical fighter but he was more of a take a punch to land my harder punch type. Branco tried a few MMA fights after winning K-1 and jumped in the Pride ring, now Cikatic was never the cleanest of fighters and that ended up causing most of his Pride fights to end in DQ or No contest.

This fight with the legend Ernesto Hoost was for the K-1 grand prix 1993 Finals in Tokyo, Japan. Hoost was 10 years younger than Cikatic and had already beat Peter Aerts and Maurice Smith in the quarter and semi finals. I feel Hoost was easily winning this fight up until Branko did what he does best and landed a huge right on poor Ernesto's chin and cause a heavy KO.

Ernesto Hoost made his return to the ring this weekend against Thomas Stanley where he was able to drop Stanley twice on the road to picking up a decision victory. This marks the first time that Hoost has competed in over eight years, marking a somewhat remarkable comeback. There are rumors of GLORY being interested in signing Hoost, but at 48 years old I think it's time to let Mr. Perfect do as he pleases and not worry about fighting guys like Daniel Ghita, Gokhan Saki or Tyrone Spong right now.

The world of kickboxing has a rich history to fall back upon so we here at LiverKick figure, why not? Why not give a glimpse into some of the fights from the past that have made up this wonderful sport and tie it all in to the present. The kids on the Instagram and Twitter like to call Thursdays "Throwback Thursdays," I'm just going to say that this is a LiverKick Throwback.

Today we are going to back to one of the best K-1 Heavyweight Rivalry's, Ernesto "Mr. Perfect" Hoost Vs Jerome Le Banner. These two fought 5 times, Hoost won 3 and Le Banner won 2 and not a single one of those fights went the distance. The style clash in these fights was the brawler against technical fighter that people love to see. Le Banner still had a lot of technical skill but compared to Hoost's technique he was a brawler and at 6 foot 3 inches and 265 pounds Le Banner was very powerful to say the least.

This fight was at the K-1 WGP 1999 Semi-Finals, Hoost beat Andy Hug by decision to advance and JLB knocked out Peter Aerts in the first round, which made Le Banner the much fresher man. They had already fought each other twice and had one win each, this was essentially the rubber match. Le Banner came out strong and fast as usual, but Mr. Perfect weathered the storm until the second round and capitalized on his opponents aggression to land a few well timed right hands, followed by a flurry and put Le Banner's lights out. Hoost moved on to the finals where he knocked out Mirko Cro Cop with a liver punch to become the K-1 WGP Champion for the second time.